Greens, Greens and More Greens!

This week there are a lot of green and leafy things in the shares. Now is the time to enjoy lots of fresh, crisp salads. I know that the season for greens can seem to stretch on and on. Once lettuce falls to the heat, it wont be back until October. The next couple weeks will likely include lots more leafy things! But soon we will also have onions, new potatoes and carrots to add to the shares. Cabbage wont be far behind, either. After all, being part of a CSA is all about eating locally, and that is all about eating what is in season when it is in season. We are accustomed to the convenience of the grocery store where the produce section represents every season in any latitude. Basing your weekly menu on what is coming out of the field at any given time of year can be a big adjustment to our pallets. But we find the quality of seasonal produce makes it well worth the wait.

This week is a busy one for getting ready for planting. We have 2,000 sweet potato slips to go in the ground. For the past two weeks, rain has kept us from preparing beds for the sweet potatoes, but finally it has been dry enough to prepare the soil, shape beds, lay irrigation, and cover the beds with biodegradable black plastic mulch. Sweet potatoes are typically planted from vine cuttings called slips. In addition, we have tomatoes and eggplant in the greenhouse waiting to get transplanted, and it is time to seed the okra.

Mr Cooper hangin with his Grammy CSome folks were disappointed that last week’s newsletter did not include an update on baby Cooper. Now five weeks old, Cooper is eating well and growing like a weed. He loves to be outdoors and enjoys hanging out in the wash-pack shed while the crew is preparing your CSA shares.

Kohlrabi is closely related to cabbage. Its firm flesh is sweet, crisp and mild. At first glance you may think that it is a root vegetable but in fact it is a bulbous stem. This is one of the only vegetables, along with beets, that must be peeled, as the skin is very fibrous. Kohlrabi is delicious raw. I can often be caught peeling and eating one like an apple when I need a snack out in the field. It is also excellent cooked and can be roasted, sauteed or steamed. Some folks like to mash it like potatoes (or with potatoes) and it is also wonderful in soup.

Hello fellow Tubby Creek fans! Allow me to introduce myself (many months late, but such is often the fate of administrative matters on a working farm). My name is Patrick; I am Josephine's cousin. I moved here back in November to learn what it's like to live off the land, to live on the land – to live with the land. I've always loved nature, and I believe being outdoors is important, and so is eating good food and learning about good food and doing physical work and being close to the earth and treading softly upon her. So this opportunity, to be part of a small working farm for a year or so, is just about perfect. I really cannot thank Jo and Randy enough. And of course I hope to be of service what with an expanding family, an expanding CSA, with life and growth in general. So I'll be here, learning about planting and cultivating and harvesting, just being part of the amazing project that is feeding hundreds of people with little more than good earth and hard work. Phenomenal stuff.

A little bit about me: I am an avid (more than avid, really) cyclist. I have traveled approximately 30 000 miles by bicycle, including a trip from the top of Alaska to the bottom of South America. I speak Spanish, would love to learn French, and basically enjoy new experiences to no end. When I'm not cycling I like to work with food. Well here on the farm I get to experience the entire life cycle of food, from soil and seed to plant and then plate and back to soil again. It is truly a beautiful thing. Richly rewarding, satisfying, and delicious.